Robert Clergerie

Today the Hong Kong-based Fung family further enlarged their empire of Western luxury brands when Trinity Limited, the Hong Kong-based, publically-listed subsidiary of Li & Fung Group (whose two main shareholders are Victor and tk Fung) announced it had agreed to purchase British tailor extraordinaire Gieves & Hawkes from Wing Tai Properties Limited.

The deal was priced at £32.5 million “plus annual payments for 18 years up to a cumulative maximum of £60 million” accoding to the announcement.Read more

Much hair-pulling and hand-wringing has gone on in the last few years over the migration of manufacturing jobs from Western nations to Asia, where costs are lower — exemplified in part in the Obama administration’s current “Made in America” campaign — but a piece today in the FT suggests that, when it comes to luxury and Europe at least, the equation may be about to reverse.